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Embryology
Embryology: Concepts & Techniques in Modern Developmental Biology

Directors: Lee Niswander, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver/HHMI; and Nipam H. Patel, University of California, Berkeley/HHMI.

Course Date: June 13 - July 26, 2009
Online Application Form, (PDF) Deadline: February 2, 2009
2008 Course Schedule (PDF format)


An intensive six-week laboratory and lecture course for advanced graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and more senior researchers who seek a broad and balanced view of the modern issues of developmental biology. Limited to 24 students.

The integrated lectures and laboratories provide a comprehensive coverage of the paradigms, problems, and technologies of modern developmental biology, cast within a framework of metazoan evolution. Students are exposed to a wide variety of embryonic systems, including intensively studied genetic model systems ( e.g. C. elegans , Drosophila , zebrafish mouse) and others with well-established experimental attributes ( e.g. chick, sea urchins, frogs, ascidians). In addition, students will be introduced to a wide range of emerging systems, including locally available marine organisms, that help fill in the evolutionary history of animal diversity ( e.g. cnidarians, nemerteans, planaria, crustaceans, mollusks, and annelids) and that are becoming established as experimental systems in their own right. This broad coverage of metazoan phylogeny allows for the analyses of the developmental strategies that drive evolutionary change. Analytical and experimental techniques used to explore invertebrate and vertebrate development include embryological manipulation (e.g. cell ablation, tissue grafting), molecular genetic ( e.g. RNAi, electroporation) and cell biology approaches ( e.g. analysis of cell lineage and migratory behaviour), and microscopic and imaging technologies (e.g. confocal and 3-D time lapse), using state-of-the-art instrumentation and methodology. Conceptual topics include cell specification and differentiation, pattern formation, embryonic axis formation, morphogenesis, intercellular signaling, transcriptional regulation, organogenesis, and modern comparative embryology.

This course is supported with funds provided by 
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Company of Biologists Ltd.
Society for Developmental Biology

2008 Faculty and Lecturers:
Sharon Amacher, University of California, Berkeley
Clare Baker, University of Cambridge
Alexa Bely, University of Maryland
Richard Behringer, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Bruce Bowerman, University of Oregon
Paul Brakefield, University of Sheffield
Marianne Bronner-Fraser, California Institute of Technology
Andres Collazo, House Ear Institute
Judith Eisen, University of Oregon
Cassandra Extavour, Harvard University
David Fitch, New York University
Scott Fraser, California Institute of Technology
John Gerhart, University of California, Berkeley
Iswar Hariharan, University of California, Berkeley
Richard Harland, University of California, Berkeley
Jonathan Henry, Univerisity of Illinois
Raymond Keller, University of Virginia
Nicole King, University of California, Berkeley
David Lambert, University of Rochester
Julian Lewis, Cancer Research UK: London Research Institute
Amy Maddox, University of Montréal
Paul Maddox, University of Montréal
Terry Magnuson, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Mark Martindale, University of Hawaii
David McClay, Duke University
Matthew Ronshaugen, University of Manchester
Alejandro Sanchez Alvarado, HHMI, University of Utah
Alexander Schier, Harvard University
Gertrud Schupbach, Princeton University
Michael Shapiro, University of Utah
David Sherwood, Duke University
Didier Stainier, University of California, San Francisco
Lori Sussel, University of Colorado Health Sciences
Paul Trainor, Stowers Institute for Medical Research
Eric Wieschaus, Princeton University
Robert Zeller, San Diego State University

 
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